Portland, ME – Forward Paul Byron might be small in stature, but that’s never stopped him from playing a big man’s game.

Byron, one of several players on the Portland Pirates, recorded a multi-point game as they throttled the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, 8-3, in front of 5,269 at the Cumberland County Civic Center on Saturday night.

Byron scored a pair of goals along with an assist and while at 5-9, 156-pounds, he added a fight into the mix.

That’s affectionately known as a Gordie Howe hat trick, and an achievement that Pirates’ head coach Kevin Dineen took some pride in.

“That’s always a worthy stat in my (playbook),” said Dineen. “When we talk about our team being competitive he leads the pack in that group. He’s an extremely hard guy to play against.”

His teammates also took notice of his stats line at the end of the night.

“It’s good to see for a young guy like that, not just standing up for himself, but standing up for his teammates,” said Pirates forward Mark Parrish. “It shows a lot of leadership and passion and that’s what we’re going to need to win in the playoffs.”

Byron opened the scoring just eight minutes into the first period when he took a feed from Parrish, ripping a shot from the slot by Bridgeport netminder Mikko Koskinen, giving the Pirates a 1-0.

In the second period, Bridgeport would tie the game at a goal apiece as former Lewiston Maineiac Eric Castonguay found the back of the net with a shot from the left circle that picked the opposite corner, past David Leggio, who was starting in place of Jhonas Enroth after he was recalled by the Sabres on Friday.

Byron added his second goal, his 17th of the season, at the 9:14 mark of the second period when he rushed down the right side of the ice, cutting across the ice and lifting a shot over Koskinen as the Pirates took a 2-0 lead.

Only 12 seconds later, Portland responded again to make 3-0 as Luke Adam, who scored twice in the game, found the rebound in the slot, snapping a quick shot into the back of the net.

The Pirates tied a franchise record by scoring five power play goals in the game, scored their second just a short time later as TJ Brennan ripped a laser past Koskinen at the 11:58 mark of the second period.

“Our power play scored five goals so that’s a good sign that we can get that going better,” said Dineen.

David Ullstrom added a power play goal for Bridgeport less than two minutes later.

Colin Stuart, who along with Byron and Adam, recorded two goals in the game, starting with his first with 3:17 left to play in the period.

“In the middle of the game, we kind of got caught playing their game and things got a little bit sloppy,” said Stuart. “Any time we do that we’re not as effective and I think we saw down the stretch we got back to our kind of hockey with puck control and making smarter plays.”

“That was the difference.”

With 2:10 left, the physical play began to take a chippy tone and boiled over as Tim Conboy dropped the gloves with Jesse Joensuu, likewise Byron and 6-4, 215-pound Benn Olson exchanged swipes along the near boards before being broken up by officials, resulted in all four players being called for fighting majors.

In the third period with the Pirates up 5-2, the Sound Tigers pulled to within two goals as rookie Rhett Rakhshani beat Leggio just 41 seconds in.

Stuart responded when he finished off a two-on-one rush with low laser to the far post, restoring the Pirates three goal lead at 6-3.

Byron finished off the Gordie Howe hat trick when he won the puck off the faceoff to Adam for a laser past Koskinen 8:56 just two seconds into the start of a power play for the Pirates fourth PP goal of the game.

Only 1:18 later, the Pirates put the game out of reach with their eight goal of the contest as Derek Whitmore spotted the rebound at the top of the crease and lifted the puck over a sprawl and clearly dejected Bridgeport netminder.

Sound Tigers coach Pat Bingham ended the misery for Koskinen, putting Joel Martin in the game in relief.

Koskinen made 19 saves on 27 shots, while Martin stopped all three shots he faced in the final 9:46 of the game.

The eight-goal outburst tied a season-high for most goals in a game for the Pirates, which could be rather surprising considering they were without their leading goal-scorer in Mark Mancari, who was recalled by the Sabres earlier in the day.

Mancari was third in the AHL scoring with 32 goals, 32 assists for 64 points in 56 games with the Pirates.

Pirates weren’t surprised.

“Mancari is a huge part of this team, especially offensively, but that’s what makes us a strong team is when guys get hurt or called up,” said Stuart. “Guys step up and do the work. I think it’s a good team atmosphere here that we stick together as a group no matter what.”

Leggio stopped 34 of 37 shots for the win, which extended his win streak to seven games. The Williamsville, NY native improves to 16-4-0 on the season with a 2.65GAA and a .915 save%.

NOTES: With Enroth on recall to Buffalo, the Pirates signed goaltender Jeff Jakitias to a PTO prior to the game… Jakitias played 42 games with Dayton of the CHL this season as well as three games with the Worcester Sharks where he went 1-2-0 with a 3.60GAA and .893 save%… The Pirates skated with 17 skaters due to injuries to several members of the team and Mancari’s departure to Buffalo. Dineen said during the post game interviews that he’ll be looking to address that prior to the Pirates game on Sunday against the Falcons… With Manchester idle, the Pirates pulled to within four points of the Atlantic Division and still have four games in hand over the Monarchs.